Complaint Review: GC Services And United Student Aid Funds - Sallie Mae - Columbus Ohio

My husband went to AIT for school and applied for a loan through Sallie Mae. Well about his 3rd year there we had our first child and due to our circumstances he couldnt finish school. Well about 2 years after he withdrew from school we recieved a letter from a company called "ACS" stating his loan was in default and needed payment or garnishments would begin. So I called them and asked what our options were being as we could not afford garnishments or outrageous monthly payments. They informed me about what the balance was and that we would have to make 9 consecutive payments to get it out of default and once they recieve the 8th payment they set us back to SAllie Mae themselves to get payments arranged with them.

We agreed and set up monthly payments with a prepaid card as we were obviously not giving them our actual bank account info. Well fast forward to the 8th payment , no letter to set up with Sallie Mae. 9th payment, still no letter to set up payment with Sallie Mae. So after a few weeks waiting on the letter that never came I decided to call them. When I did a lady ensured me they would be contacting me soon not to worry. To no avail I called again, this time with the phone just ringing and no one ever answering the phone. This remained like this for weeks before I gave up and faced the fact that these people were no where to be found.

Fast forward again, 3 years later we start recieving numerous phone calls daily in which someone leaves messages after messages without stating who they are just saying this is an attempt to collect a debt. My kid(s) now, were being awakened by the several phone calls. They started as 1-800 numbers and started turning into local numbers so I would answer them. When I did I asked who it was and the guy started telling me about my husbands loan and that we had to make monthly payments in order to clear the debt. I asked how much and he told me the least they could take was $300 a month. I eplained my hardship to him and stated with 3 kids there was no way I could afford my rent, utilities, groceries, necessitites and $300 payments to them and told them I could make the $150 payments I was making before.

They declined my payment and said that wouldnt work for them, so I told them there was nothing I could do if they were refusing my payments. Well the phone calls continued on a daily baisis yet none of these companies sent any paper trail to us through the process of this madness. One day these people called my father in law and discussed his debt with him and he told them dont call him again about his debt. A few days later I receive another phone call from these people (still have no clue who they are and at the time I was so frustrated and nervous about possible garnishment it slipped my mind to get their info) and I told the lady on the line she is waking my kids up every day and if they do not stop calling I will take legal action against them. So they stopped! Finally i got through to them.

Well, lets fast forward to about 2014 and I was looking at my husband's paycheck and noticed a wage attn at the bottom with different amounts taken out of it. I asked him about it and he had no idea what it was so I told him to ask his employer about it. When he asked they told him they would need to look into it. Weeks went by, months. I told him to ask again. They said they would look into it and call him back. Never did, and with life you get side tracked about following up with things. So About the next year I called and asked for the name of the company garnishing and when it started. Finally I was told it was Pioneer Credit Recovery and they have been garnishing since 2012. So I looked into this company and tried to find out anything I could. Eventually I call these people and they tell me they are garnishing for USA Funds and when I call USAF to ask about the loan they tell me they can't give me any information because they dont have access to the loan its in Pioneers posession. So I called Pioneer back and wanted a breakdown of every loan amount, balance, history, interest, and payment made. Speaking with a couple people I recieved a few different numbers that didnt meet at all. One lady told me there was 12k in interest which was impossible. So I asked for a supervisor and he told me a different number from hat the lady said and mentioned to me that it looked like there was about 15k paid before the new system that wouldnt carry over. Like hell it wouldnt! So we asked what options were available for us as they said there was still a 14k balance on a loan that entered their posession at 16k which would mean this should be well and over but it isnt according to them. 

Anywho, as we were planning on filing taxes that would take care the majority of the loan and leave us at a couple thouand which ould be paid off in a few months by wage garnishment. Now on July 2, 2018 Pioneer has been paid in full and just a couple weeks before they were paid in full we receive a letter from GC Services stating he owes 38k to Sallie Mae. It seemed that every time we were close to getting somewhere we were set back each time. I dont know where GCS is getting this because when I look on my husband's credit report it says Sallie Mae is a $0 balance and was paid off 100%. It also said USAFunds with different balances but I disputed them all and without hesitation USAFunds deleted them off his report. Now when I logged on to Naviet's website in April the past due balance was 14k. Today it is at 38k. There was also only 6 loans on his account and they were all paid off and now mysteriously has something about a signature loan (3 of them) with outrageous interest of 12k and 7k on them. Naviet's site says they were paid off by USAFunds, which in my theory would mean He would be paying them for paying off Sallie Mae and by not paying USAFunds due to never receiving a notice they sent Pioneer to collect on their behalf. Which would mean Sallie Mae should be $0 as it is on the credit report and USAFunds should be $0 and Pioneer $0 since they were aid off a couple weeks ago. 

I am confused as to where and how GCServices is now comming into the picture with the same 38k that was paid over the course of 9 years. So I decided to send them a letter of debt validation with enclosed papers with information I was requesting be filled out and returned to me asking the company of the loan granting them permission so seek after him, the balance, the duration they have had the loan etc. This was on the 9th of July and on the 17th I recieved something back rom them. As I opened the letter the front page said this was in regards to the dispute I sent them and as of the time it entered their hands this was the balance and as of today this is the balance and sent a COPY of the original loan he signed at the school. Now Im not the brightest crayon in the box but what I requested be sent back to me filled out to its entirety to validate the debt was not retuned at all. If anyone has delt with an attorney about anything similar to this please email me [email protected].  I am currently seeking free legal advice to handle this matter once and for all. Hope this situation may help someone else and vica versa

i am also a victim of g c services wage withholding tactics. everything you have said has happened to me... how do i help you fight this corrupt company

i too am a victim of g c services. they garnished my wages. they took a 4,000 loan which the school closed . usa funds said i owe them 9,000 well g c said its now 12,000. i asked what loan in 1996 did i take out they wont respond . i told them i cant pay 200.00 a month they said then pay the 12,000 or we will keep adding more. the wage letter was sent on a usa letterhead and they calim its from court. yet usa knows nothing about this

I would like to say that even though this is an older post, i just have to comment on one of the last posts about it being the consumers fault if you default. I went to school back in 2005-2006 and had problems with the school and was still left with the almost $20,000 loan thru Sallie Mae. For the first 3 years, i deferred the payement, but to my surprise, a collection letter landed on the doorstep at my mothers residence. This letter then was sent to me and imagine my surprise when i knew my loan was supposed to be in defferment. I contacted the company , GC services, immediately and explained the situation and was greeted with hostility, resentment, and all around ugliness. These people not only outright called me a liar and treated me like scum, gave me about 5 days ( minus the 2 days for the weekend, so 3 days in total) to come up with the reduced payment for their so called rehabilitation program. Then i was also told that if i didnt have a checking account by the end of that business day, that i would also be in refusual whether i sent in a payment by mail or not. Sending payments by mail would then take 3 months to be accepted into a program which would stop any garnishment that was taking place on top of the payments i would be sending in. So seeing i didnt have the $25 to cover the deposit into a checking account to open a new one, I was forced to finally open a checking account online with a bank that was down south. I live in Connecticut and the closest bank was located in Maryland. Seeing this bank didnt need a payment that day, i was able to open an account thru them. But then i had to overnight a money order to them the next day ( cost me $20 to overnight money order) so that it would hopefully be there in time for them to withdraw the funds, which it wasnt and then i was charged a fee of $36 for the overdraft. And now they have sent a letter stating that they want payments in by the 10th of each month , when they said the end of the months. I got this letter on the 7th (today). These people are crooks and should be stopped. They assume that we lie, cheat and steal and should be treated like animals. They told me everything is black and white, but the world lives in the gray area.

clearly you are of the mind that the end justifies the means in this situation.  Has it escaped your notice that unemployment is at a record high??? NOTHING justifies these means. NOTHING. Two wrongs do not make a right (but 3 rights make a left).

GC Services and others like them should be bound by the rules like anyone else.

First of all, You are grouping all these companies together and they shouldn't be. USA Group and sallie mae are NOT the same company. if you loans have gotten that far you have defaulted. and if you have defaulted that is not a fault of sallie mae nor any of these complanies. Sallie Mae (along with all other student loan companies) offers 3 years of hardship deferment, 3 years of unemployment deferment, 5 years of voluntary forbearance that you dont have to qualify for, and also several options to lower your payments to include making interest only payments, 4% of you monthly income and extended repayment. So with all these options out there if you defaulted on your loan that is b/c you didnt take the time to try to do what you could to keep your loan from defaulting. So stop trying to put blame on the company and get mad that now that its to a point where they are going to take your money. You should have tried to work it out when you could. And YOU are the one who took out all that money so why are you now trying to complain that you cant pay it. Did you think of that when you were taking out those thousands and thousands of dollars?

Hi, I've seen some of the reports against GC Services on here and had to respond. I used to work there. I have seen first hand some of the horrific things this company is capable of. I was fired for refusing to violate FDCPA! I tried to work with some of the people that I had to call. I was taken aside by my unit manager and told to 'stop listening to sob stories and do my fu**ing job'... I saw first hand the lies that consumers were told. I refused to participate in this and was no longer needed at the company. They try to set people up on payment plans or in programs that usually end up taking out another loan in the persons name at interest rates of up to 28%. That's insane. Also while I worked there the company got in a lot of trouble for not properly dealing with documents that had confidential info in them. The news crews went through our dumpsters and got an enormous amount of info on random debters. All of this paper work was supposed to be shredded. It was just sitting there for anybody to take and steal. There was also a group of several employees that worked there that were caught stealing peoples info and pulling identiy theft stunts with. A few of them were let go but they were never reported and the consumers were never notified. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure that's not legal. Especially because they knew that these people were taking out credit cards and getting state IDs in the consumers names. I truly feel horrible for the things that I saw and I hope that anybody who has a problem with them doesn't allow this company to bully them. Find a lawyer and take it to court. It's the only to get them to stop.

My lawyer just settled with G.C. Services. They are well aware they break the laws they just don't care. They write the settlement checks and keep on going. The greatest satisfaction in all of this is I won't have to deal with them ever again. Keep notes on every call and letter you get from them and don't let the bully you.

G.C. Services did the same with me. They filed garnishment papers and when I asked for the hearing they disregarded my request. My employer called me in when he received the paper work from G.C. Services they wanted 30% of my salary. I told him the history of the events, showed him my letters and other evidence of correspondence and he sent them a letter saying "no, you will not receive monies from my employee until she is granted a hearing." . Garnishment stopped. A hearing was held with out my knowledge..judgment against me. The problem then arose...I have two collection agencies attempting to collect the same debt and neither show the $1,800.00 I have paid toward the debt. Paid directly to Sallie Mae. My employer will not allow garnishment to this day. He feels I am being railroaded and now it has reached frightening proportions. Keep up the good fight. They expect us to be so intimidated by them we will pay even if the amount and conditions of repayment is outrageous. They are backed by our government.

I have been busy putting my 'ducks in a row' here. I really appreciate the inspiration you have given me. I just wish more people would post about this company, well all of them. A friend of mine experienced the same thing recently with another collection agency for student loans. I kept cautioning him that he had better follow up on his garnishment. It wasn't until they held his tax return and finally called the company that he followed my advice on what to do next. He was able to get it resolved and rather quickly as a matter of fact. Mine was a bit harder because of the immenseness of the Sallie Mae. I can remember when I first got my student loans back in the early 90's and paid them off in full, Sallie Mae was a great company to work with. However, if and when I go back to school and I WILL, I will make sure they are not on my list of lenders or I will attend another school. The link below is yet another reason Sallie Mae is not to be dealt with. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/04/ny_sallie_mae.html Interesting reading if you don't already know about it. Well, back to my paperwork and collection of notes and such. This will be a huge task but worth every second of it. In addition, thank you for your reference as well! Please keep us all informed on how things are going with your situation. It helps us all and I do appreciate everything you have done. 'M' :-)

Number never let anybody give you an ulcer or frustrate you. Your philosphy should be..."You will be the one crying, frustrated, angry, etc..." after attempting to mess with me of my rights. If they can get you upset in any way they will use your weakness agains you. Never give your power away like that. I have some more information for you lookup the FTC number I gave you in the last message. Do your stuff! Peace B.

Personally 'B', I think I/we have a good case. I have a folder four inches thick with correspondence, including envelopes, etc. I also have about three thousand links to similiar situations with GC Services (not an exaggeration) and phone records of all the calls in print, in addition to who or whom called, what they said, etc. I also have a report filed with the FTC which advised me of my rights to sue and receive compensation. I should have never been drug through the 'mill' as 'they' did. Then there is the FDPCA. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf or http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.shtm I can check off almost every one of the items listed that they didn't comply with and have proof to boot. So, after what they put me through, including the fact that my ulcer has returned, I WANT COMPENSATION AND THEM TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS. I also informed Sallie Mae aka United Student Aid Funds that they were also accountable as they hired this company to harass me. I suggested they find another more suitable collection company before they get sued as well. My comments were taken very seriously. I cannot get into how and why at this time. I do thank you B. You have been a tremendous help. I wish the best of luck to you and please keep us updated. I promise to do the same.

Monica, do your thing! Remeber to keep all documents including the envelopes . What I have found is that keep an outside journal with a time line, this way when it comes down to it, you have a concise document and can say your piece, witut gong through a volume of files. I really don't think that GC services wants anyone else looking at their files and as I told them, I really don't have to win, but as long as some one else is looking at my file, they can see your inconsistencies. Let me explain to them I fell out of the program in July 07, so accordng to the rules my wages should have been garnished last year. This year I start paying agin in January and in February I receive a notice to have my wages garnished. Does not make sense. When asked why the governement did not reject my payment she was stuck for answers. Again, lies, lies. She tried to get me to stop paying, I told her that I would continue to pay. Fight! Fight! Fight! Win! Win! Win! Peace B FTC 531096-00018

Let's get in touch 'B'. I need your help and I am hoping the information I can share with you, (which is much more detailed than what I have detailed here); will be of use to you. I am not sure but I believe your attorney will find what I have quite useful. In addition to the volumes of research, I have done on GC Services and the Federal Cases that have been filed against them. Thanks again so much. You are an inspiration! And thank you Ripoff Report, you are invaluable!

I wish we could keep in contact also, because I really don't care if they know my e-mail address. Let them harass me via e-mail and I will sue them. But what we can do is set up a time to meet every week via ROP and check each other's progress. Or what I can do is give you all the name of my law firm and let my atrroney know that you will be contacting him and we can exchange this way. I think my attroney would be willing to do this. Ed you need to set up something on the web site that allow folks to share this type of infomration and still give you the credit. Coming to ROR is a good thing however we get stymied when we can't share. I know your reason however, I think I should be able to make the choice of who gets my inofrmation. Just a suggestion. Good Luck! Good Luck! good Luck! GC Services is just upset because none of my payments will be to their credit. Did I fall out ofmy payment plan yes. However, I began repaying the Department of Education on my own without their help. This is why they are upset. Fight! Fight! Fight! Win! Win! Win!

Every time I read about them, I get angry all over again. I don't know how these people sleep at night. Even if I were destitute, I would not take a job doing what they do. I am still recovering from this as I mentioned in my earlier posts. At least I think I mentioned this. I had hours upon hours of phone calls and arguments. I feel sorry for the folks that don't do their research and realize that this is pure intimidation and that GC Services is breaking the law. I am not done yet. Yes, it would be easier to let it go and chalk it up to experience, but I am doing this for all of us. In addition, I thank you B, for doing the same. You are a trooper. I wish there was some way we could make direct contact so we could actually say what was going on without fear of repercussion. I would love to hear everything and would love to tell you everything. Hang in there and please keep me and all of us posted on your PROGRESS! My best regards to you and again THANK YOU!

Wow! I feel refreshed thanks for responding. I thank god that I keep good records today they received a very nasty letter from my attroney and from me. I am also going ot file witht he FTC because they are a third party bill collector. I will keep you posted of the new lies they tell. Good luck! B.

I cannot get into specific details (legal reasons) but thank you B for helping me as well with your report. I am still so worn out from the entire event that I have yet to secure legal representation regarding this matter. However, the FTC has my complaint and I have all my phone records, names, times, etc. Recently, Direct Loans sent me some paperwork that was a duplicate of what I had received and filled out two weeks previous. Only this time, the paperwork indicated that I would be in serious financial peril if I chose this option (a Direct Loan). When I contacted Direct Loans, they said, You received this from us? I have even more fuel to add to my fire now. If I find out that this is indeed paperwork from GC Services and not Direct Loans, wow what a case I will have. I find it odd that the paperwork said almost the exact same thing that GC Services said to me over the phone several weeks ago. In addition, this would not be the first time that GC Services has misrepresented their selves as being the Federal Government. Do some research on Google and you will find a class action suite against GC Services for using Department of Education Letterhead to collect on loans. I have two years to get this done per the statute of limitations. I wont forget what they did to me. Thanks again B. In addition, please if possible keep up updated on the progress of your situation.

I received a call from them back in december 2007, telling me that they were going to garnish my wages! I have been paying! Yes! I have been paying. I was told today that I can still pay the amount that I have been paying on top of the garnishment. When I told her that I did not argee she started yelling at me and then put her "boss" on the phone who could not understand why I was disagreeing. They also have the line that we sent you a letter and you did not respond. They did not send the letter. I have contacted a lawyer myself. Thank you for your post, because this will help me with my case. I am not the ony one they are trying to play games with.

I received a call from them back in december 2007, telling me that they were going to garnish my wages! I have been paying! Yes! I have been paying. I was told today that I can still pay the amount that I have been paying on top of the garnishment. When I told her that I did not argee she started yelling at me and then put her "boss" on the phone who could not understand why I was disagreeing. They also have the line that we sent you a letter and you did not respond. They did not send the letter. I have contacted a lawyer myself. Thank you for your post, because this will help me with my case. I am not the ony one they are trying to play games with.

I received a call from them back in december 2007, telling me that they were going to garnish my wages! I have been paying! Yes! I have been paying. I was told today that I can still pay the amount that I have been paying on top of the garnishment. When I told her that I did not argee she started yelling at me and then put her "boss" on the phone who could not understand why I was disagreeing. They also have the line that we sent you a letter and you did not respond. They did not send the letter. I have contacted a lawyer myself. Thank you for your post, because this will help me with my case. I am not the ony one they are trying to play games with.

I received a call from them back in december 2007, telling me that they were going to garnish my wages! I have been paying! Yes! I have been paying. I was told today that I can still pay the amount that I have been paying on top of the garnishment. When I told her that I did not argee she started yelling at me and then put her "boss" on the phone who could not understand why I was disagreeing. They also have the line that we sent you a letter and you did not respond. They did not send the letter. I have contacted a lawyer myself. Thank you for your post, because this will help me with my case. I am not the ony one they are trying to play games with.